COMPREHENSIVE TOOLS FOR ENABLING EMPLOYABILITY AND MOBILITY IN EUROPEAN CLOTHING SECTOR.

In recent years, European reindustrialization has occurred, specifically in the textile and clothing sector in Portugal, Spain and Romania, from the application of the Just In Time (JIT) methodology with the result of the need more skilled labour available in the European Union. The paper presents aspects concerning the CosTUmE project that contributes to the diminishing of skills’ gaps between the qualification offer and clothing industry needs, to attract young trainees to graduate technical qualifications and to stimulate professionals to update their skills. Also, this work presents the comprehensive tools that were developed in order to raise the awareness of companies to support the employees in the process of upskilling and to provide tools for European mobility and implementation of the updated Clothing Technician profile for validation and recognition in Portugal, Spain and Romania. The training package integrates practical explanation of the Clothing Technician Profile with resources and exercises to integrate learning outcomes and work-based learning. In concrete, the training package contains guidelines, study cases and strategies to motivate and support the trainee, and to support the learning process. The tutorial guide for mobility describes the mobility purposes with the main documents used for recognising the mobility in Europe. The comprehensive tools target all VET providers, trainees, companies, trade unions, sectors associations and other entities that work or help with mobility process. The anticipation of needed skills and the promotion of cooperation between industry and vocational and educational training are considered relevant actions to be implemented in the next period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]